As a child, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave concerts in public venues and private dressing rooms. He performed in his family’s apartment in London, where people would come to listen to the young music prodigy for an admission fee. He performed for the likes of Louis XV’s daughters, Princesses Adélaïde and Victoire, and the King and Queen themselves. In those days, the first music-listening device hadn’t been invented. (Thomas Edison would introduce the phonograph more than a century later, in 1877.) Live was the only way to listen.
Today, music is radically more accessible. It’s everywhere, and there’s so much of it. Fun fact: It would take someone until the 27th century to listen to the 100 million or so songs currently available on Spotify alone. Music serves many purposes beyond entertaining the aristocracy. We use it to motivate us through a workout, to distract us during a root canal or to help us fall asleep.